Why it works: Eggplant and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 371 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the eggplant and soak in cold salt water for at least 1 hour.
Make a thin batter with 1 beaten egg, a little water, and flour.
Dip the eggplant slices in the batter.
Fry the battered slices in a mixture of butter and lard.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Eggplant + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together371 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together507 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the eggplant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, butter):
- Chivefits better
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Eggplantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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